NJ native has career day abusing Big Blue
Haason Reddick grew up in the part of New Jersey reserved for hating the Giants — and he played like it on Sunday.
Reddick tortured the Giants and their hobbled quarterback, Daniel Jones, for a Cardinals-record five sacks and three forced fumbles — maybe the NFL defensive performance of the year — to fuel a 26-7 victory at MetLife Stadium.
“I cried at the end of the game — filled with joy, felt blessed,” Reddick said. “This whole year has just been important to me, seeing things go the way I want them to go. To see today happen is amazing. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
Lightly recruited out of Haddon Heights High School, Reddick grew up an Eagles fan before starring at nearby Temple and becoming the No. 13 pick in the 2017 draft. His first three seasons were a bust — 7.5 total sacks — but he has come alive in the final year of his contract with 10 sacks in 13 games.
“This is my first time ever having a game like this,” Reddick said, “where everything was just working for me on all cylinders.”
Reddick victimized Giants rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas — who took a step backwards after four straight good performances — for at least two of his sacks. There only have been seven individual performances since 1982 of more than five sacks in a game — none since 2017.
“I have to do a better job of getting the ball out on time,” Jones said, “and taking some of the pressure off the guys up front.”
The Cardinals finally canned a three-year attempt to turn Reddick into a stand-up linebacker and let him get back to his roots. Four of Reddick’s five sacks essentially killed drives — only once were the Giants able to recover to gain a first down.
“Haason came in Wednesday and said he was going to get after the quarterback this week,” teammate Markus Golden said. “The look in his eyes this week, I knew he was going to have a big one. I didn’t know it was going to be that big.”
The Cardinals’ eight sacks were started by the ex-Giant Golden, who was traded back to his original team for a draft pick in October and announced his return by beating right tackle Cam Fleming for a strip-sack of Jones to end the Giants’ first possession.
The Giants’ offense (159 yards) flailed like it did in a 2018 game against Washington, when Eli Manning was sacked seven times.
It is unclear if the defensive game plan was specifically designed around Jones’ rushing limitations because Cardinals public relations cited a team policy in not permitting The Post to ask a question in the postgame Zoom interviews. It appeared the pass rush was going to tee off until Jones proved he could execute a zone-read keepers around the edge.